In a media playback system, a media file is typically opened read-only, so that multiple users and applications may render or otherwise use the media file simultaneously. In a typical example, a user may want to rate a song during playback of the song. However, in a read-only state of the media file, media file updates such as changing the user rating metadata cannot be performed by the player or any other application with current systems. Since some files can take hours to play, having the file held exclusively in read-only mode can be problematic. Even if the files are shared in such a way to allow write operations, perceived and real file corruptions could result. For example, if the media file is modified by another application during playback, the file will change “underneath” the playback application and, thus, the changes may nullify other changes or even corrupt the media file.
Accordingly, a system for persisting changes to metadata associated with a read-only media file is desired to address one or more of these and other disadvantages.